Surface Mini Will Only Launch In 2015, Says New Report

Reliable new report, at that. Mary Jo Foley has finally chipped in with some new details regarding the elusive Surface Mini tablet, confirming what many already thought.

That is, contrary to some new rumors, the Surface Mini will not be launching this summer.

Previous hints on the matter said that the smaller tablet was already in the final stages of production, and Microsoft was gearing up to release it sometime this summer in order to expand the tablet lineup with a small 8-inch model.

But regular Microsoft watcher Mary Jo Foley believes that this very unlikely, as only little has changed since May when CEO Satya Nadella and devices boss Stephen Elop reportedly made the decision to cancel the launch.

She is, obviously, referring to the fact that the Surface Mini tablet does not bring anything new to the market, little in terms of differentiating factors.

All that may change with the release of the touch optimized version of Office, codename Gemini, which would allow users the ability to create and edit documents without leaving the Modern UI.

Foley says that work on the Android version of this touch optimized Office continues, and this version is on track for launch later this year. The Windows version of the productivity suite is also in development, but will only see the daylight sometime in early 2015.